Anthro 104 Notes PDF

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Anthro104 Notes

C U L T U R A L A N T H R O P O L O G Y

Cultural Anthropology is the study of people’s everyday lives and their communities - their behaviors, beliefs, and institutions - Explores all aspects of human culture, such as war, violence, love and sexuality, birth and death Participant Observation - is a strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied - Important to ethnographic framework - AlloWs anthropologists to look beyond the everyday experience of life to further explore things Ethnology- the analysis and comparison of ethnographic data across cultures - This process looks beyond local realties to see general patterns of behavior With Ethnographic fieldwork and cross-cultural comparison, cultural anthropologists seek to understand each other and the world 

W H A T I S G L O B A L I Z A T I O N, A N D W H Y I S I T I M P O R T A N T F O R A N T H R O P O L O G Y? Globalization refers to the worldwide intensification of interactions and increased movement on money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders - People, organization, and nations are being drawn closer together - Globalization has long been happening, but recently reacher a new level of intensity - Not a positive or negative event; technologies allow for interaction, but some left out. Economic grown, also inequality G l o b a l i z a t i o n A n d a n t h r o p o l o g y -Globalization has existed big 19th century to now -- stemmed from communication and technology advances -Changes how anthropologists conduct research  G l o b a l i z a t i o n : K E Y D Y N A M I C S Characterized by several key dynamics: time-space compression, flexible accumulation, increasing migration, and uneven development Time-Space Compression- the rapid innovation of communication and transportation technologies associated with globalization that transports the way people think about space (distance) and time - Cell phones, cameras, the internet, etc have all changed our sense of how long it takes to do something and how far away something or someplace may be. - The world essentially feels smaller

Flexible Accumulation- the increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization, enabled by innovation communication and transportation technologies - Companies have moved their production facilities and activities around the world in search of cheaper labor, lower-taxed, and fewer regulations (more flexible)  companies shift move their factories to export processing zones in developing countries - Offshoring- when - Outsourcing- when corporations shift their work to employees in other parts of the word INcreasing Migration- the accelerated movement of people within and between countries - People have moved from rural to urban areas, as well as moved across national borders - Migration is building connections between distant parts of the world Uneven Development- The unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization - Ex: Internet access: Globalization connected 3.2 billion people, but 4 billion people remain offline - Uneven development reflects negative aide of globalization as groups are marginalized - Creates extreme wealth and Extreme poverty (Ex: China) G L O B A L I Z A T I O N A N D T H E E N V I R O N M E N T - Our species has adapted to changing environments over time - Ancestors evolved and developed greater brain capacity, and invented cultural adaptations (tools, controlled fire, etc) - Now use of culture to adapt to the world around us S h A P I N G T H E N A T U R A L W O R L D - Humans adapt to the natural world - Caused profound changes to the atmosphere Anthripocene- distinct era in which human activity is reshaping the planet in permanent ways - We confront issues that we created that pose a risk to human survival - As globalization intensifies, it escalated the human impact on the planet Marshall Islands - Confronted with the issue of climate change -- effects are profound on the islands - Think about the ideas that atmospheres are connected- everyone is affected by it H U M A N S A N D C L I M A T E C H A N G E Climate change - Changes to Earth’s climate, including global warming, produced primarily by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels - reshaped physical world and threatening to radically change modern human civilization - Already have changed agriculture - Areas have started flooding due to melting polar ice caps -- forces people to cope

H O W I S G L O B A L I Z A T I O N T R A N F S F O R M I N G A N T H R O P O L O G Y? -Significant changes in past 30 years C H A N G I N G C O M M U N I T I E S -intense debates over the role of globalization -Critics warn of homogenization and loss of traditional cultures -Proponents note exposure to diversity and opening possibilities for personal choice C H A N G I N G R E S E A R C H S T R A T E G I E S

-Strategies change with the transformation of communities that we see today -A.Ps engage in multi-sited ethnographies -Chinese in New York Example -- everyone wanted to leave the village to get to ny-- remarkable connection between 2 distant places - People who move globalize old village (transfer money, they text, they send children back home)

A S S E S S I N G E V O L U T I O N A R Y P E R S P E C T I V E S - Debates continue to claim that basic patterns of behavior, intellectual capacity, and psychological tendencies are determined by biology - Popular notions come from Buss and Tooby + Cosmides who believe that that fundamental aspect of who we are, how we behave and think, and how we organize societies are directly related to each other, and evolved over time and are in our DNA - Argue that patterns fo survival selected for different physical/mental abilities - These abilities became fixed in our DNA - APs critical for overstating influence of genetics, and understating importance of culture and society - Roles of hunters and gatherers crossed ove rmore E P I G E N E T I C S A N D T H E H U M A N G E N O M E Epigenetics- An area of study in the field of genetics exploring ays environmental factors directly affect the expression of genes in ways that may be inherited between generations - Explores variations not caused by changes in the actual DNA - Epigenetic examines variations caused by how genes switch on and off in relation to environmental factors - Can be inherited across generations T H E H U M A N M I C R O B I O M E Human Microbiome- the complete collection of microorganisms in the human body’s ecosystem - Includes a vast array of microorganisms and their genes -- plays a huge role in bodily functions - Large symbiotic Community - Industrialization, globalization. And modern sanitation has changes our relationship to our environment and our microbiome F R O M H U M A N B E I N G S T O H U M A N B E C O M I N G S - Emerging science of epigenetics reveals we are highly susceptible to environmental factors - Our bodies do not function in Isolation as discrete units - Evolution in realtor includes multiple architects of behavior and form - Genes are a part of developmental history in which biology and culture are deeply intertwined and entangled in a dynamic and ongoing process of change - Human b ecomings  C O N N E C T I N G C U L T U R E A N D B E H A V I O R - Culture is learned from people around us; we can learn any culture we are born/move in to - Practices are not universal - By recognizing this, we can question the biological baiss - Evolution is influenced by culture -- culture makes us human allowing us to evolve physically and in relationships - Cultural adaptations have replaced genetic adaptations

H O W I S C U L t u r E C R E A T E D ? -

Culture takes time to create and is shaped by people and institutions Culture is not fixed: it is invented, is changed and is contested, it moves across regions of people Culture and economics are closely linked

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MAx weber (the protestant ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism)  linked capitalism in Europe to protestant Christianity that developed in the 17th century Capitalism didn’t emerge in other cultures (despite material conditions) because those cultures did not have values to allow capitalism to take hold - Values deemed central to protestant ethic led to a certain relationship to the accumulation of capital that allowed capitalism to flourish in the west

W I L L I A M U R Y - Mediator and negotiation advisor in conflicts - Has worked recently to help prevent civil war in Venezuela, and end the war in Indonesia - The connection between mediation and anthropology - ability to put yourself in someone elses shoes - Tactics of a Third Side - Works by mobilizing the surrounding community around the conflict to put perspectives in place  M A N U F A C T U R I N G T H E D E S I R E T O C O N S U M E     ...